It's Been a While....

My husband has been on vacation the last two weeks and we've been busy.  We went to a Cider Mill, walking, Quilt Shows, Flea Markets and watched our 2 granddaughters for a week.
Oh yeah and my leg healed up and I was able to walk in the 2 mile "Step Out for Diabetes" at the Detroit Zoo.

First the Cider Mill....guess what?  I didn't get a picture of the mill, but took some pictures of the river and a butterfly.

The path is along an old railroad bed.  It went for about a mile.  It was very relaxing listening to the sound of the river rolling along.

Here is the butterfly, although it looked more like a moth.  The body was very thick and if you look closely you can see it's antennae.

This is what greeted us as we walked to the Quilt Show at Wolcott Mills Metro Park.  It was such a beautiful Autumn day.

I loved the hand quilting and the ribbon border on this quilt.

Don't you just love Halloween Quilts?

The Quilt Show took place in the historic Mill building.  It was small, but I really enjoyed it.  This was my first quilt show since I moved back down from Up North.

We found another small quilt show in Hadley, Michigan.

The machine quilting is so fantastic on this quilt.

This was a favorite of my Husband's.  Since he is such a Civil War buff he loves anything
with reproduction CW fabrics.

My sewing machine has been acting up lately.  I was checking out new machines on Amazon and saw a Brother Sewing Machine I was interested in.  I went to my local Brother dealer and found a machine that had some features I was looking for.  Needle down position, quilting stitch, a blanket stitch that is easy to adjust in many different sizes, and I can run it without using the foot pedal.

 Here she is.  It is a Project Runway, Novis 4o.  I love it.  Since I spent last week at my daughter's watching the girls I didn't have much time to play.  I'm making up for it this week.  I also go a wonderful surprise from a friend.  My husband's friend's daughter gave me a featherweight sewing machine.  It was her grandmother's and she doesn't use it.  She knows I sew so she gave it to me.  Now my featherweights number 4.  I think I need to sell one.  lol

 I did get a couple of projects finished.

You know when you make a square in a square block?  Well this little quilt

was made from trimmings.  It will probably be a AAQI quilt.

It is approx. 8"x11".

This is the quilt I made for the Quilts, books and Binding group I belong to.  We read

a book and then we were to make a quilt that represents something

from the book.  The book takes place in the fall in a town in New York that is

on the banks of the Hudson river.  This is the spot that Nell  was re-proposed to

and where she went to think.  I call it "Nell's side of the River". 

It will also be an AAQI quilt. 

This has been a lengthy post but I hope you enjoyed it.

Later this week I hope to share some news with you....

and I'm hoping to have a giveaway...

So stay tuned.

Wishing you a quilty day!

Hugs, Cathy

I've been lurking lately...

I haven't been doing to much lately, just lurking, reading a few blogs.

I have worked on some applique and hand quilting.  Nothing really ready to show you yet. 

I've had an infection in my leg and am on antibiotics and have had to keep off my feet.  Normally that wouldn't bother me but I can't sit at my sewing machine.

I'm all set to start a year long Bee at 15 minutes play.  And we have been asked to say what has inspired us to quilt.

My inspiration comes from new family members, nature, photos, books, Alzheimer's,  holidays, friendship and fabric.

Here are some of my original works from my inspirations.  I hope you enjoy.

What inspires you?

Hugs, Cathy

So Much Done....

First of all a question.  What do you think of my new header picture?  It reminds me of the end of summer.
I've been busy this last week.

This is September's EQ7 BOM.  It was a difficult block that I made easier by dividing up the block into squares and triangles. 

Here is the nine blocks all together.  It is going to be a nice wall hanging when its done.

I got behind on my Barbara Brackman CW Blocks.  Now I'm up to date. 

I really love the 15 minutes play BOM.  I ran out of cheddar and bought some new fabric.  It is slightly different but I think it will work.  This is the Anvil block.  Victoria posted a tutorial for the block on the 15 minutes play blog.  The link is on my side bar.

Here is Cowen's quilt.  I just finished sewing down the binding this morning and had to hang it up to get a picture.  I love how it turned out.  I machine quilted in the ditch on the pieced blocks and had quilted either a heart or star in the plain blocks.  I backed it with some flannel fabric.  Now we await the arrival of Cowen.

I've mentioned before that I belong to a group called "Quilters, Books and Bindings".  We are all reading the same book and then we are making a quilt from some aspect of the book.  The book is The Lover's Knot by Clare O'Donohue.  It takes place in a town on the shores of the Hudson River.  In the book there is a scene along the river where the main character in the book is re-proposed to .  This is what my quilt is based on.  I made it small so I can kill two birds with one quilt.  When I'm done it will be my September AAQI quilt.

And finally.....

I'm changing out my quilts again.  I love this Log Cabin quilt.  I was given a ton of strips from a quilting friend.  At the time my daughter, Kim, was just starting to sew so I offered them to her.  She declined by saying you can't make anything from them.  Well I just had to prove her wrong.  This is what I came up with.  You know my scraps are getting bigger so I think it is time to make another Log Cabin quilt. 

I hope you have had a nice time visiting with me today.  I've enjoyed sharing. 

Wishing you a quilty weekend.

Hugs, Cathy

It Came....

I won any book I wanted from Emily @ "Em Celebrates" and "Celebrating Big Girl Pants".  I chose this book.  I absolutely love it.   I love the cow in the book (since I collect cows) and I'm thinking I can change it into a Moose (I collect them too).  Thank you, thank you, thank you Em.  I luv U girlfriend.

I recently joined a new group: "Quilts, Bindings and Books".  We are going to read a book and then make a quilt that represents some portion of the book.  The book we choose is "The Lover's Knot" by Clare O'Donohue.  So I went to Amazon and ordered my book.  Of course I had to check out some quilting books.....I was bad....lol

I love applique and this book is great.  It has a DVD with the patterns and you can print the patterns up in 5 different sizes.  But that's not all....

I am such a fan of Kathleen Tracy.  I follow her blog religiously.  And my DH won't throw a fit at my buying books as long as they have anything to do with the Civil War.  lol

Now I did get some sewing done too.

I finished the quilt top for my nephew to be, Cowen.  It was too dense with all pieced blocks so every other block is a neutral plain block.  I like how it turned out.  This weekend I will sandwich, pin baste and machine quilt it.

Don't think that I have forgotten my "Primitive Primer" quilt.

I've been so busy with so many projects lately.  The other day I pulled this block out and started working on it again.  I usually work on while the Detroit Tigers are playing.  After this block is done I need to make the Starburst block and the appliqued border.  I can't wait to finish it.  I already have a wall I plan on hanging it.

Today would have been my Dad's 90th birthday.  He passed away in February 2010 on Superbowl Sunday.  How he loved the Superbowl.  I miss you Dad.

Wishing you a quilty day.

Hugs, Cathy

FNSI

I worked on a baby quilt last night.  My nephew is in the Air Force and stationed in Germany.  He and his wife are expecting their second son.  So this quilt will be for Cowen.
I plan on making Churn Dash, Shoo Fly and 9 patch blocks in blue and neutrals.  Six each with the centers dark and the outside neutral and then six each with the centers light and the outside dark.  These blocks are 6".

I would have gotten more done except I had a very wonderful visit from my Grandson Brian.  He left this morning to go back to college and came over to see me for a little bit and give me a couple of his wonderful hugs.  I'm going to miss him but gratefully he will only be a couple of hours away so we can go visit him.

Wishing you all a quilty day.

Hugs, Cathy

A Little Bit of This, A Little Bit of That and A Lot of Pictures!

A Little Bit of This is.....It's Friday Night Sew-In.....Yay!!!  I've got dinner in the slow cooker and fabrics picked out for tonight's Sew-In.  Hope to see you there...

A Little Bit of That is......Last months Bunny Hill BOM.  Took me a while but I finally finished it.  Now I need to start on this months BOM. 


Yesterday Terry and I decided to go out to Kennsington Metro Park for a picnic and a walk.  It was much hotter than we thought it would be but we still hiked a bit.  Get ready for a lot of pictures....

The swans were out in record numbers.  We counted at least 50!

Love taking pictures of the wild flowers.

We came across a secret stairway.  I wonder where it went?

We took birdseed with us this time.  Terry had fun with the chickadees.  He was sitting there maybe a minute when the first bird came.

While walking we ran into this couple take the kids for a walk.  I think they smelled the birdseed.  They walked right past me and headed for Terry....and mean they ran to him.

They loved the seed.  And they remembered us.  We left the Nature Center and then came back later.  When we pulled into the parking lot these 4 Sandhill Cranes were lying in the shade.  As soon as Terry got out they came running.  He dumped a handful of seed and then we took off running.

There were so many of these Swallow Tail Butterflies all over the place.  They really liked purple flowers.

I spotted this red tail hawk.  He looks so majestic.  But he also explained why there weren't a lot of birds around.

I just love Sunflowers.  Any size, any shape, any kind.

This park is so big and has so much to offer.  Including a petting farm.  This goose reminds of the goose in Charlotte's Web.

It was so HOT...  But this fella knew how to keep cool.

Caught this little fella just before he dashed down his hole. 

While walking on the boardwalk that crosses a small lake saw this creature.  It was the biggest snapping turtle I had ever seen.  His shell was about 20" long and 15" across.  If you look closely you can see the moss that is growing on his shell. 

Now if you think this is a lot of pictures I have to confess I took about 100 pictures yesterday.  We had so much fun walking and taking pictures.

Wishing you could have gone with us and hoping you have a wonderful weekend.

Hugs, Cathy